The Battle of Draconi Forest

[MadEmperor]

Kah tripped his captor with his tail. Nodding, quickly shifted to his hybrid form to snap his incomplete binding. He sprayed icy fire in the direction of the rest of the gang before shifting again. The bandit beside him scrambled away, but Kah finished and bit down around his head, killing him with a spray of arterial blood.

Thrax brought his axe down on Validor, only to be blocked by the bandit leader's large, curved sword. The man grinned savagely, somehow pushing the larger gnoll back. The brutish bard seemed surprised by this development. "How..."

[DragonSong]

With three sets of claws and fangs and two different kinds of fire being tossed back and forth, it didn't take long to at least work out a bandit-free circumference around the bounty hunters.

Hana seemed to noticed Thrax was in trouble first. She had fallen back toward Kahroan's left flank, but she saw Validor start to push the gnoll back.

"Oi, party boy! Duck and roll!" she called, tossing a fistful of foxfire at the bandit's back in an effort to distract him.

[MadEmperor]

Thrax dove and rolled under foxfire, which Validor cut through with his blade. As his malice grew, his voice took on a deep, threatening reverberation. "Nice trick, fox, but you're going to have to try harder." The voice came with a vague feeling of dread.

Zeldrinn stepped back suddenly. "No... it ca--" Validor dashed at the ranger with terrifying speed, impaling him with an upward stab that lifted him off of the ground. 

[DragonSong]

Hana screamed and River gave a brief yelp even as she tried to roll away from Validor's charge.

"Zeldrinn!"

She was in human form in a breath and grabbed Hanako before she could run for him. "He's gone," she hissed, "I'm sorry, he's gone. Thrax needs help."

The kitsune whimpered, then shook her head and whirled to run to Thrax, trying to cover him with tossed handfuls of fire so he could fall back in with the group.

[MadEmperor]

Validor freed his sword and blocked a flame. He was distracted just long enough for Thrax to get off his concussive force spell, flinging the unusually large half-elf against the rock wall of the cleft. Thrax ran to join the others with one last sad look at Zeldrinn's body.

"How the hells is he still moving!" the bard asked desperately as Validor rose to his feet.

[DragonSong]

Hana snarled—sounding more animal than human, despite her currently humanoid form. "He smells...different," she muttered.

River sniffed. The fox was right; something about the half-elf's scent was off. She couldn't place it, but it brought her hackles up even higher.

Keep your guards up, she warned in beastspeech as she backed up a step toward Kahroan.

[MadEmperor]

The surviving bandits appeared to rally as Validor's fearful presence grew. Yet, they kept back, content to fence in the party. Validor strode forward, eyes turning black as night with veins of darkness pulsing out from them.

Thrax gulped, eyes wide. "Storm protect us. He's a demon!"

[DragonSong]

River pressed back close to Kah's chest, teeth bared even as fear thrummed through her body in an echo of her heartbeat.

Hana looked momentarily panicked, but then her expression shifted. "Yeah?" she growled, sinking into a crouch. "Well, so am I!"

She lunged for the demon, changing to her monstrous fox form mid air.

Kahroan, get them in the air, now!

[MadEmperor]

What about you?! Kah asked, scooping up the others with one leg.

Thrax struggled to get free. He had seen too many die; he couldn't do it again. Not again. "What are you doing?! We can't leave her too!"

[DragonSong]

"Go!" Hanako urged; she and the demon were circling each other, two predators wary to make the first move. "Go, now!"

River found herself in sudden and firm agreement with Thrax. "Don't be an idiot!" she called to the kitsune.

Hana spared them a brief glance over her shoulder. In beastspeech, she said with a kind of tired resignation, Even a dragon will have trouble against a demon. I can keep him distracted. Just go.

[MadEmperor]

"I'm sorry..." Kahroan said before--

A small form materialized upside-down in the air before Validor in a puff of inky black energy. "Boo!" He fired a crossbow bolt directly into the demonic bandit's right eye before vanishing again.

Validor roared in fury, pulling out the bolt. Then he saw the lit fuse vanish into the explosive strapped to the projectile. It exploded in his face.

The form reappeared leaping passed a bandit to cut his throat with a short, curved blade of exotic design. The black-furred weasel-like humanoid landed on a rock, looking over at the party. "Don't just stand there you ninnies! Fight!" He jumped and teleported again and again, taking out several men before the smoke of the explosion cleared.

Validor laughed darkly, his bloody face already nearly healed except for his eye. "So... the Shadows have finally tracked me down, have they? I wasn't aware they employed vermin."

"Can it, ugly!" The new arrival pulled down one eyelid and stuck his tongue out.

[DragonSong]

Hanako blinked. "What in--"

River loosed an arrow at one of the few remaining bandits, catching him through the throat as he tried to charge their diminutive rescuer. "No time, Hana, fight!"

The kitsune growled an affirmative and charged at Validor, sparks flying from her paws.

[MadEmperor]

Kahroan let Thrax go and breathed freezing flames out over the dregs of the gang, freezing them solid.

Validor swung his sword, only to have it hit with a lightning bolt from Thrax. The shock made his arm seize, leaving him wide open. Burning hot claws tore his chest open.

The small, deadly being paused to shout as he brought a series of weapons out of a pocket of nothing, searching for something. "Don't let up! I have a plan, but I need time."

[DragonSong]

"Needs time, he says," Hana huffed as she danced around Validor, trying to bait him into attacking her, leaving openings for the others.

River joined her, once again in her wolf form, using typical pack tactics to try to push Validor back, darting in and harrying at her legs and ankles and then twisting away again before he could land a proper hit.

[MadEmperor]

The Ranger whistled, and a ghostly blue wolf bound from the trees to assist the shifter as if it were a member of her pack.

Kah found an opening and sprayed a gout of frost at the demon. For the moment, anyway, Validor was frozen. But the ice was already melting as his fiery cracks appeared in his skin.

"C'mon Mei, where is--ahah!" The Ranger held up a long silver dagger etched with unfamiliar writing. "Now which of you wants to do the honors? I don't think I have the strength to pierce his heart with this."

[DragonSong]

River grinned a wolf's grin and glanced back over her shoulder. Kah? she called to her mate, with a toss of her head in the newcomer's direction.

Hanako whooped, practically bouncing around Validor as she pounced back and forth in front of him, sending flames licking up from where her paws landed.

[MadEmperor]

Kahroan and shifted down to his hybrid self. He hurried over to the Ranger. "Please, allow me."

"Nice trick." The stranger smirked appreciatively as he handed over the dagger. "Make it count, good dragon."

"I plan to." Kah nodded and hurried back.

Before he could make it, the ice shattered and hellfire erupted from Validor. Red skin, horns, hooved legs—the form that emerged was very clearly a demo. He laughed darkly, bearing sharp teeth. "Ahh... It's been ages since I've taken my true form. Pity you won't live to tell anyone of my grandeur."

His burning sword cut an arc towards them, sending out a wave of crimson flames.

[DragonSong]

River tried to throw herself backward, but she knew she was too slow. And she had no idea what demonic fire would do to an ice dragon, but she was not anxious to find out.

Before she could even fully process the flare of heat across her back, it was gone.

Hanako had somehow planted herself between the demon and the rest of their group, hands outstretched to draw the flames into herself. She was panting, skin lit up from the inside, red eyes burning bright.

"Get...back," she gasped to a frozen River, then looked to Thrax. "I can't...hold this in..."

[MadEmperor]

The others gave Hanako room to release the evil fire trying to burn its way out of her.

Kah gripped the dagger tight, waiting for the right moment to strike.

[DragonSong]

The fire exploded out of her with a cry, momentarily blinding. River cowered back against Kahroan's legs, squinting into the light.

And then the air was clear, a path directly to the demon as Hanako staggered back out of the way, closer to the slender weasel-like figure who had given the dragon the dagger.